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Law & Legal Issues, Middle East

The upcoming 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan "is vulnerable to corruption and fraud," an Afghan watchdog said Monday, dpa reported.

Fraud, ballot stuffing, misuse of government resources by candidates and abuse of government positions are among the concerns, said Yama Torabi, a member of the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee.

Reviews have identified monitoring gaps that create opportunities for fraud and corruption, he said in a press conference.

Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday, the second stage of a limited amnesty designed to help U.S.-sponsored peace talks that have been dogged by divisions on both sides, Reuters reported.

The inmates, convicted of murder in the killing of Israelis before or just after interim accords were signed two decades ago, were bussed from jail at midnight to welcoming parties in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Turkish families with three or more children will be exempt from paying taxes, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Shimshek said during a debate on the 2014 state budget in the country's Parliament, Sabah newspaper reported on Wednesday.

According to the publication, Turkey's budget for the next year allocated 78.5 billion lira for education and 30.4 billion lira for social assistance to low-income families.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for increasing the birth rate in the country.

On Tuesday Turkish Security Forces carried out a large scale operation against drug traffickers in the Eastern Province of Diyarbekir, Anadolu agency reported.

According to the statement, 24 teams from the Turkish Gendarmerie and three units from the Anti-Drug department of the Secretariat General on Turkey's security participated in the operation. Three helicopters were also involved.

It is reported the operation is directed against drug traffickers connected with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party.